"Malke" <malke@invalid.invalid> wrote in
message
news:eolMhFBfIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Frank Martin wrote:
>
>> There is a great deal of data on this E:
>> drive in the form of photos & movies &
>> e-books, and I want it all back.
>>
>> The old damaged drive seems to be damaged
>> on
>> the printed-circuit cover plate (judging
>> by
>> the burnt-Bakelite smell) and this is
>> removable by undoing 6 screws.
>>
>> Therefore I ask: can these
>> printed-circuit
>> cover plates be acquired separately from
>> the
>> HDD, or can I buy another cover plate and
>> exchange it with the damaged one. The
>> old
>> HDD seems to be spinning OK?
>>
>> I am loath to take the damaged unit to
>> some
>> specialist HDD-recovery firm because of
>> the
>> sensitive data it contains.
>
> The only way to reliably get data off that
> drive is to send it to a
> professional data recovery company such as
> Drive Savers (my preference) or
> Seagate Data Recovery or the like. General
> prices run from $500USD on up.
> Drive Savers recovered all the data on a
> failed laptop drive for one of my
> clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it
> was worth the money; only you
> know what your data is worth. I understand
> that some insurance companies
> are now covering data recovery charges so
> check with yours.
>
> Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
> Seagate Data Recovery Services -
> https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/
>
> Companies like DriveSavers deal with
> sensitive data all the time so unless
> it is data that will get you sent to
> prison - and I'm not suggesting it is
> - I wouldn't worry about it if you want to
> get that data back.
>
> You cannot fix this yourself. There have
> been instances of people purchasing
> an identical hard drive and swapping out
> the control boards, but that is
> tricksy and unless you have very strong
> skills I don't suggest you try. The
> boards must be exactly identical and there
> is no way to determine what is
> really wrong with the drive. Every time you
> spin that drive up you run the
> very high risk that you are destroying
> data. If the data is important, send
> it to a professional.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!




I had to buy a new HDD, the same type and
model as the failed one, and then I changed
over the control card of this to the old one.


This worked, and I was able to retrieve all
the data. It was a burned-out control card
on the HDD.

I had the computer tested and I was told that
the HDD control-card burnout was caused by a
faulty power supply, and, also, that this
was causing the curious
start-up-after-shutdown problem.

I had a new larger-capacity power supply
installed (way over capacity) and all is well
now.

I went to the expense of installing an extra
identical HDD and I use this to do routine
complete backups with Norton12.0. This is
cheaper than stuffing around if the same
thing happens again.

I have extra portable pocket-sized HDDs for
off-site backups too.

Someone might benefit from these experiences.

Regards, Frank

PS. I did contact Seagate about the problem
but they were not specific in their help;
rather they gave what amounted to a sales
pitch of the "send-it-in-and-we'll-try" for
which they were going to charge over $1500.00
succeed or fail.